So, I'm moving to Louisville, Kentucky to go to grad school. On Friday I drove down there to look at the townhouse that my companion and I want. While we were waiting for our walk-through, my grandma (who'd come down with me on the drive) mentioned to me, "You know, Louisville is a very black city."
I blinked. "Okay," I said.
The end. But I was prompted to look up these demographics (via ZIPskinny):
ZIP: 40219 (the ZIP code of the area I'll be living in)
Race
Hispanic/Latino: 2.8%
White*: 78.1%
Black*: 16.1%
Native American*: 0%
Asian*: 1.1%
Hawaiian/Pacific Islander*: 0%
Other*: 0.1%
Multiracial*: 1.4%
* Does not include individuals
in this racial group
who identify as Hispanic/Latino.
ZIP: 46068 (the ZIP code of the area where my grandma lives)
Race
Hispanic/Latino: 1.2%
White*: 97.9%
Black*: 0.2%
Native American*: 0%
Asian*: 0.2%
Hawaiian/Pacific Islander*: 0.1%
Other*: 0%
Multiracial*: 0.2%
Via Wikipedia, demographics for the US overall
Race
Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, of any race: 14.8% or about 44.3 million
White alone: 74% or 221.3 million (Not including the 23.2 million White Hispanic and Latino Americans: 66% or 198.1 million
Black or African American alone: 13.4% or 40.9 million
Latino Americans: 66% or 198.1 million)
Some other race alone: 6.5% or 19 million
Asian alone: 4.4% or 13.1 million
Two or more races: 2.0% or 6.1 million
American Indian or Alaska Native alone: 0.68% or 2.0 million
Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander alone: 0.14% or 0.43 million
So, when my grandma says "very black," not only do I cringe but I am thinking, like, 50%. No. Just the teensiest bit higher than the overall percentage for the entire United States.
Wev, Grandma. lol your isolation
Open Thread
11 hours ago
1 comments:
My Gammie was horribly racist during her lifetime, dropping the N-bomb like she was saying "good morning." She never had one kind word to say about any person of color, any color, other than white. Although she didn't have many kind words for anyone, she seemed to save up the worst of it for black people. As much as I loved that cranky old woman, I had to walk out of the room whenever she started on that crap. I used to try to tell myself that it was the era she grew up in, her hometown in which black people had to be out be sundown, her horrible upbringing at the hands of brutal father. My mother, who is an RN, now recognizes that Gammie exhibited all the signs of being bi-polar, but refused treatment for it. I have known several bi-polar people who were reasonable and tolerant, but I have often wondered if her unreasoning hatred wasn't part of her mental illness.
It is very distressing when someone you love, someone you came from, says offensive things to you, I'm sorry you had to deal with that.
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